


Adventures and Misadventures

by Sapphiremoonlight1



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Firewall Dragon - Freeform, Gen, Is he actually human?, Pierrot Ai?, little bit of blood duh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-27
Updated: 2020-02-02
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:07:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21984160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sapphiremoonlight1/pseuds/Sapphiremoonlight1
Summary: Ch. 1 - Adventures in being human. Turns out Ai doesn't like being human very much.Ch. 2 - Misadventures in being an A.I. Yusaku doesn't take being an AI very well.Ch. 3 - Switching bodies is overrated. Poor Yusaku
Relationships: Ai | Ignis & Fujiki Yuusaku
Comments: 1
Kudos: 20





	1. Adventures in Being Human

**Author's Note:**

> _'They're not evil thoughts but I wonder in order for me to live, why do I have to adapt to humans?' ___

“Aaahh!”

Why is that idiot screeching so early in the morning? His alarm hasn't even gone off yet and somehow it sounds like some kind of natural disaster is going on in the living room. If it weren't for his neighbors, he'd let Ai continue but he didn't want to deal with any kind of noise complaint from their neighbors.

Yusaku begrudgingly starts to untangle himself to find out what's wrong with Ai this morning. His partner is still a damn drama queen sometimes, last time he'd woken Yusaku up this early it was because something happened on his favorite soap opera. They now have a rule that he's not allowed to watch those until after Yusaku's already up.

“Yusaku!” Ai cries flinging the bedroom door open before he jumps on him before Yusaku can even make it out of bed. He's gotten used to dealing with the semi heavy soltis frame but somehow the trembling android leaning on him was lighter.

“Ai, it's too early in the morning for this,” he groans trying to get the energetic brat off him. It was surprisingly easy to do. There was a low thud from the android falling off the bed.

“Ow!That hurt” Ai whines, glaring childishly at him from the floor. He must still being waking up because even with all the modifications Ai made to the soltis, he still never looked so red and puffy when he cried. It wasn't something Ai wanted the android to be able to do, it was gross to the A.I. He looks away from the pouting idiot to check the time. Then he spots a small red streak on the bed that wasn't there before.

“Have you been trying to make breakfast again? he asks smoothing out the sheet to get a better look. The idiot was a good cook when he didn't try to multitask to an impossible degree. Which happened a lot over the years and it lead to many hours of clean up.

“No I stabbed myself with a knife” Ai says quietly. That didn't make any sense to him. He was too tired to figure out what kind of shenanigans his partner was up to now. When Ai starts drawing imaginary circles in floor Yusaku sees the hastily wrapped bandage around his hand. It's definitely starting to stain but wait Ai doesn't like fluids like blood why would he make a modification that is similar to it? Wait, stabbed himself with a knife! What is going on here?

“I'm just as confused as you are, something isn't right.” Ai brings his bandaged hand up, moving it around wincing occasionally.

“I'm not sure how, but I think I might actually be human now,” Ai says softly choosing to try to hide the hand behind his back. “I'm being serious, stop looking at me like that!”

“What?” Yusaku says. That's not possible. “Ai's it's too early for this, go clean up whatever mess you've made” He doesn't want to be mean but this was pushing the limits of what he would put up with this early. He's already somewhat awake now might as while get ready for the day. So Yusaku gets up to walk to the bathroom but Ai grabs his wrist before he makes it past the doorway.

“I'm not trying to pull anything here, look all the soltis signifies are gone,” Ai says pointing to where that jarring blue light should have been. Honestly, Ai could have just modified the android to not have that light. When would Ai have had the time to do that though? He them last night before they went to bed. Instead of continuing to think about it he decides to Ignore Ai again and continue to the bathroom.

”Fine, look at this then” the aggravation in Ai's voice got him to turn around to see whatever it was. Ai quickly undid the bandage to show him the bleeding wound in his hand.

“You know the soltis can't bleed and that I wouldn't make that kind of modification,” Ai says flatly. He's got a point there.

“Alright let's get that cleaned up" Yusaku concedes yet Ai doesn't stop being tense as he lets Yusaku lead him into the bathroom.

As much as Yusaku wants to believe Ai, it's not possible for an android to magically turn human. He's gonna kill the idiot if this is some kind of prank. That frustration cools when Ai takes a seat on the side of the counter, that spark of anger replaced with an overall worn out look. It's worrying when the usually upbeat AI is like this. Over the last few years, Ai has mellowed, however it was still weird whenever he got too quiet.

After rummaging around the cabinet for a few minutes Yusaku remembers he used a lot of them a few months ago and likely never replaced them. It's a good thing incidents like that are rare now. The last one was just an accident with some boiling Miso soup.

“Think I might have used what was left to keep from dripping everywhere,” Ai remarks off handedly .

“Alright, give me your hand,” Yusaku says going to turn on the faucet. It would be a good way to see if Ai's telling the truth and the idiot probably hadn't thought to wash it off before wrapping it up if he wasn't.

“Going to check whether or not I really am human, it is hard to believe,” Ai says giving Yusaku one of his casual winks, but the look in his eyes says he's baiting Yusaku into something. It's easier to just ignore the festering look so he can continue what he was doing. Within seconds the red liquid washs off leaving a fairly decent cut...the idiot really did stab himself. Gross as it is being able to see into the wound made Yusaku want to believe Ai. This wasn't something the AI would do as a prank. "Earth to Yusaku the water is starting to get hot."

“Sorry, I have one question, though.” he says quickly turning off the faucet before staring right at the idiot. Said idiot just tilts his head to the side not saying anything. “Why, if you thought you were human did you stab your hand!”

“You say that like that was the first thing I did!” Ai replies jumping off the counter. “I tried a few other things first like connecting to the internet the way I usually do and then I checked for those lights and...” Ai rambled off a long list of things that included trying to plug himself in to charge.

“How did this even happen?” Yusaku asks knowing neither of them can answer that. He doesn't get an answer from Ai anyway because he skipped off. Maybe he should call Kusanagi, the other man always had advice, even if didn't always apply it was usually helpful. Could ask if he had any bandages...that would just cause Kusanagi to worry so that's not an option. Either way he'll call him up and then go down stairs to see whatever Ai's been doing since he got up. He should apologize for being so insistent on not believing Ai too but one thing at a time.

“No it's nothing like that, no I still have all my fingers, no Ai...that isn't even possible, No everyone's in one piece, could you stop making crazy assumptions, forget it we'll stop by Cafe Nagi later” he was hoping for that to go better then it did. Eh, they can stop by a local pharmacy before they go get something to eat. It's funny now he can see Ai actually try some of the hot dogs he's always making inappropriate jokes about. Maybe this mess won't be so bad after all.

He finds Ai hunched over the kitchen table, pressing a towel into his hand. As miserable as Ai seems he didn't exactly answer Yusaku earlier.

“Ai why did you stab your hand if you thought you were human?” he asks. Ai stares down at the table trying to avoid looking at him. “Ai”

“This has been a little much for me and I thought maybe I was just crazy, that it'd just get stuck like it would have if I was still in an android,” Ai replies in a hushed tone closing in on himself more. It's kind of confusing Ai made the soltis as close to human as he could but now that he is human he's definitely not happy about it.

Instead of questioning it he walks over next and places a hand on Ai's shoulder before using the other to move the towel. Seems to have stopped bleeding but its still a decent size. It looks painful how Ai isn't crying in pain he doesn't know. Either way they'll just have to go to the store to get something to cover it so it wont get infected.

Ai pulls away and grins at him but Yusaku can see he's trying to cover everything up. "How about we go on an adventure! we need to get bandages and I'm sure you'd love some coffee" Ai sings before clapping his hands. He winces from the impact. Maybe they should just stay home, Ai's going to need to get used to be human after all. Though what Yusaku really wants to know is what's bothering Ai so much.

'drip, drip,' thankfully they both look a the window before Yusaku can answer him. One after another small droplets of rain increasingly hit the glass panel. That didn't stop Ai, though; he got up from the table dragging him along too only to stop right before handing him an umbrella.

“Oops maybe I should let you get dressed first then we can get some coffee so you won't be grumpy,” Ai says teasingly. It's still too early for this, but a couple of gallons of coffee should make things better. Much as he wants to believe Ai, some part of him needs more proof this isn't all just an another elaborate plan of his but how can he do that? Still he grabs an extra coat for the idiot just in case, it's raining and probably freezing out there.

Not that the stubborn AI would actually put the coat on. No, he'd rather face the cold in a flimsy blouse. Some days Ai didn't want to put in the effort to look like a sane human that had a sense of temperature. In his internal ranting Yusaku didn't catch the footsteps behind him stopping. He got to the store before he glanced into the windows and didn't see Ai next to him in the reflection. There was also a sign on the door saying it was closed for the holidays...right, they both somehow missed it, that means all the cafes in town are closed today including cafe Nagi. Why didn't Kusanagi mention anything about it? He probably did, and Yusaku didn't catch it.

Time to find out where Ai crept off to anyway. Shouldn't be too hard to find him, even in toned down clothing Ai's hair would definitely stand out in this gray city. Trying to avoid the growing number of puddles, he finds him standing in a crosswalk staring into the sky. Ai's soltis has always looked absurdly pretty considering how vain the person controlling it is, it makes sense. standing there in the rain like an marble statue with his arms out seemly trying to catch the rain, was just overkill. It's like a scene out of those dramas' Ai likes to watch except here that was dangerous. Even if it was a holiday, this was still a city and a car could easily come by.

The bright high beams far off down the road reinforced that. He's never been athletic, but he needs to get that idiot out of the road. Yusaku dashes across the crosswalk not waiting for the pedestrian walking sign to change. Pushing Ai probably wasn't the best idea because they both lost their balance and Yusaku ends up falling on top of Ai who hits the curb hard.

“Ow! Yusaku, what was that for?” Ai says squirming out from under him rubbing a hand against the side that hit the curb.

“You zoned out in the middle of the sidewalk idiot! You could have been hit!” Yusaku barks. Great he dropped the umbrella so he's getting rained on too.

“Oh” Ai whispers getting up but he hunches a bit instead of standing straight up.”Sorry I got caught up everything again, it's nice to feel the rain." The idiot finally figured out it was cold too because he'd started shaking slightly after a light breeze blew by them.

“It's fine, Let's go home everything is closed today anyway,” Yusaku sighs, and Ai offers him a hand to help him up. Once up he goes to grab the discarded umbrella. They might already be soaked, but it's easy to see when the rain isn't falling into one's eyes. The car attached to the headlights from earlier, while not exactly a car it was Kusanagi's truck. Yusaku's not sure if that's lucky or a just a coincidence especially with everything else today. The man rolls down his window to give them that 'you're both idiots' looks.

“Get in the truck I'll ask for an explanation once we get to your place,” Kusanagi says pointing to the passenger's side. Ai just shrugs so they both squeeze into the front, Ai sitting squished between them on the floor. It's silent for the few minutes it takes to get to their apartment and settled in. He and Ai go to find a change of clothes while the vendor waits in the living room for them to tell him what's going on. While Ai's getting changed Yusaku spots the start of a bruise where he hit the ground. That must of hurt more then the other wanted him to know.

“Ooh, Like what you see Yusaku?” Ai giggles pulling down a new sweater to cover it up. The flirty act doesn't work on me Ai, you know that. “Hurry up now we shouldn't keep Hot dog man waiting”

With a wink he's slinking out the door to bug Kusanagi. Maybe Ai can get the other man to make some coffee. That's all Yusaku really wants today, some coffee so he can wake up then he can deal with Ai.

“Yusaku hurry please, Kusanagi's threatening to dismantle me! Help!” Ai yells from the living room.

“Maybe we should let him, might fix some of your bugs,” Yusaku comments coming into the living room; Kusanagi's on the couch and Ai's on the floor by the heater.

“You're both so mean, and technically that would make him a murderer,” Ai points out and Yusaku really didn't need that kind of mental image.

“Anyway why were you too out in the rain?” Kusanagi asks ignoring the incredulous look from the other man on the floor. It's become easier to ignore the dramatics over the years.

“We're out of bandages and the only way to get Yusaku outside is with the promise of coffee,”Ai says getting closer to the heater. He's not wrong about that, the only way to get him to do just about anything is with lots of caffeine.

“What crazy idea were you testing that got Yusaku injured this time?" Kusanagi sighs mildly amused That was usually how it went. Ai would come up with some strange thing he wanted to try and unfortunately Yusaku would get injured trying to keep whatever was happening in check. He laughs, but Ai from his position against the wall is trying to burn holes through them with his eyes.

“It's not like that, this time Ai got injured,”his partner growls. As threatening as Ai can be when he's wincing every now and again and shaking from the cold, he's about as scary as linkuriboh or the dark ignister might be a better comparison.

“Come on, let's get some ice for that bruise,” Yusaku suggests and Ai lights up looking relieved as he gets up to walk to the kitchen with him.

“I know it's been awhile since I've been over but you two do remember he's an android right?”Kusanagi asks like they've both lost their minds and they probably have but that's nothing new. Much as Yusaku likes to think he's level headed he also lives with someone who could have been a mad hatter in another life.

“Its...,” Ai cuts him off “I'm human!” he finishes with his usual flair, but it's empty. How are they going to prove that? Yusaku believes him or at least wants to believe him.

“Yusaku it's not like you to play along with his schemes like this,” the other man scolds.

“I'm not playing along, it's strange ,but I think he is human somehow,” he explains seriously while Ai stalks away probably upset that Kusanagi thinks he's trying to pull something much like Yusaku did this morning.

“You need to get out more than,”the man suggests but the expression on his face says he might forcefully try to get them to go out more..

“Believe it or not. He woke me bleeding because he stabbed his hand to prove to himself that he's really human” Yusaku replies before leaving the vendor in the living room to see what Ai's doing.

“If that was the case why, not go to the hospital and get an x-ray of him?” Kusanagi asks.

“You think they'll just allow us to walk in an ask for that,” Ai huffs appearing out of nowhere all sharp glares and dark aura. “Considering I don't exactly have the identification for that kind of thing no hospital would ever see me, though now that you bring that up I probably should work on that might help if anything serious happens.”Then Ai starts looking smug, this might not end well.“ How about I make us all some lunch, my insides have been making that weird noise for the last few minutes maybe lunch will help you accept what I'm saying?” With that he's making his way around the kitchen slowly, still visually twitching occasionally.

“Kusanagi, Ai's made a lot of modifications to the Soltis he uses but there are somethings even he can't make it do or even that he wants it to do,” Yusaku says taking a seat at the kitchen table. A stain on the table catches his attention, just like the one his bed from this morning. Ai shouldn't have to get injured to prove himself.

“Alright I'll believe you if he can stomach whatever it is he's making,” Kusanagi jokes wanting to lighten things up before taking a seat.

“He's a better cook than me,” Yusaku says with a shrug.

“That's right, Ai am a great cook!” calls Ai, who's digging around the fridge.

“By the way you do remember what day it is right?” Kusanagi questions.

“A closed sign reminded me, but what are you doing here with us instead of with Jin,” Yusaku responds. Kusanagi has asked a couple of times if he wanted to spend the holidays with Jin and him. He doesn't have anything against celebrating the holidays Yusaku's just never been interested in doing so. Instead he's spends the time at home with Ai binge watching some dramas...some of which he actually does enjoy too.

“Oh come on Yusaku, don't freeze Kusanagi out like that,” Ai says shaking the knife in his knife around. Really that idiot is going to injure himself again doing that. “I'll be done soon too!”

"We all know Yusaku's never been on the mushy side of things, while aside,"Kusanagi cuts himself off laughing after he gestures towards Ai. Good to know the man is never going to stop teasing him about his social skills or lack thereof.

"Bon appetit, mangeons mon copains" Ai says placing a tray on the table with some sandwiches and a few cups of coffee. Yusaku ignores the likely purposely bad french to enjoy the meal and the sight of Kusanagi gawking at Ai shoveling down sandwiches. "Ah!, too hot it burns" Ai complains to fan off his tongue in vain after trying drink his way to hot coffee.

"How is he not short circuiting?" Kusanagi asks in awe of the chaos in front of him.

"We already told you," Ai says before going back to his current sandwich.

"Alright, You win I believe you" The vendor says.

"It's not about winning"

They hung like that for a few more hours until Kusanagi said he should head home to meetup with Jin. Apparently his brother was off doing something on his own so kusanagi had free time and was slightly concerned after Yusaku called him, so he decided to swing by only to find them out in the rain. It was nice to spend time with him anyway, they've all moved on with their lives but they still tired to find time to hang out occasionally.

Those occasions are usually like today was, they usually didn't last very long. Ai and him stayed inside after Kusanagi left. Yusaku going off to work on his computer and Ai spent a few hours trying to find some way to occupy himself since he couldn't just connect to the internet and cause trouble. Yusaku is very aware that Ai is a menace when he wants to be, especially online.

“OW!” Huh, he must of lost track of time working on his latest project. What did Ai do now? He's going to child-proof the place if Ai stays like this.

This time around though Yusaku makes it into the kitchen to find Ai examining his pink likely minorly burned arm.

“Ai what did you do now?” he asks going over to check out what Ai was looking at. Seems like he burned his arm, nothing major but enough that it'll probably still sting for awhile.

“Sorry I don't know what it is with me today, I just wanted to make so hot chocolate so we could have a nice evening together it is Christmas after all,” Ai quietly says gesturing to the hot kettle he was using to heat the water up. “But I split one of the cups on accident.” It might be that he needs to get used to functioning as a regular human and not as a soltis.

“It should be fine, rinse it under some temperate water for a bit and I'll finish cleaning this up.” Yusaku says. Ai looks a bit sheepish before heading to the bathroom. Maybe he should finish making some hot cocoa for the both of them. It would have been better to ease Ai into being able to feel things in a way his android sensors couldn't. But none of them wanted to believe he was human including Ai himself and it's not exactly something either of them expected to happen or whether it will last. Is he going to stay like this? How did it happen and why? He's not going to get an answer to those. For now he's going to make a couple cups of cocoa and find a dorky Christmas special for them to watch, that should cheer Ai up.

However, he'd been waiting at least a half-hour for the other to come out and was starting to fall asleep waiting. Yusaku didn't notice Ai coming over or throwing a blanket over him.

“Aww, Yusaku falling asleep on me already” Ai whispers settling on the couch next to him with his own blanket.“Your favorite drama with the weird Playmaker look-alike should be on soon too.”

“Be quiet,” yusaku mumbles which causes Ai to laugh before he leans against Yusaku side trying to get comfortable. He's already comfortable so he's not going to complain.

“Yusaku are you happy that I might be human?” Ai questions almost to low for him to hear. Is he happy about it? The fact Ai is (was) an AI has never bothered him, it always seemed to bother Ai that he wasn't human more than anything.

“No, I don't mind what form you take as long as you're happy with it,” he says earnestly. It's true he doesn't mind if Ai wants to hang around like as a weird alien creature or an android as long as he's okay with it.

“Good, I don't really want to be human,”Ai says still being quiet.

“Oh, it's not all it's cracked up to be is it?” Ysuaku asks and Ai slumps down into the couch a bit more.

“No, I don't enjoy being something I'm not,” he wiggles one of his arms out from under the covers to examine the cut on his hand.“I don't like being separated from the other ignis like this, even if they're gone now. I'm an Ignis, this just feels wrong"

 _'They're not evil thoughts but I wonder in order for me to live, why do I have to adapt to humans?'_  
Ai said that a long time ago. That hasn't changed over the years has it? "If that's the case why do you spend so much time in the Soltis?" Yusaku asks he really wants to know considering Ai never really seemed mind running around like that. Ai usually spends most of his time in the soltis so Yusaku's never thought too much about how Ai felt about it. 

“When I stay like this people take me seriously at least most days,” Ai replies trying to get comfortable after Yusaku moved. He's got a point about that, most people see that diamond on his neck and disregard Ai almost completely. Somedays Ai seems to make a point of messing with those people especially when he doesn't feel like pretending to be human...that's it isn't it Ai doesn't want to be human he even sometimes hates that he has to pretend to be one so waking up as an entirely different entity then he was likely feels like some kind of curse. 

“Neither you or Kusanagi thought I was telling the truth today, I know you've been questioning whatever happened all day,” Ai says, finally shutting his eyes like he wants to go sleep instead of having this conversation. .

"Ai if this isn't permanent you should spend more time in whatever form makes you happy,” Yusaku starts and moves to put his head on top of Ai's. “and I am sorry about this morning too, but I have one question still, Why did you stop in that crosswalk?”

“Oh, I was curious what the rain felt like, there's only so much an android can comprehend about its surroundings and it was really nice even if it was freezing cold,” Ai whispers before they both finally fell asleep for the night. Hopefully in the morning Ai will be able to go back to being himself. “Today hasn't been all bad”

“Yusaku, Yusaku, wakey, wakey,” Judging by how stiff he felt they both fell asleep on the couch last night. He doesn't want to get up yet, though. “Aw, come on Yusaku,”

“No go back to sleep,” he mumbles wanting nothing more than to just sleep the rest of the morning.

“Get up, look I'm back to normal!” he finally catches on to the electronic pitch in Ai's voice. “There you go, just a little bit more.”

"Shut it, it's still too early," Yusaku grumbles pulling his blanket over his head. That doesn't stop the small creature that used to live in his duel disk from slipping under it so he can pull it off. 

"Oh come on meanie!" Ai cries.Yusaku turns his head to look at Ai but he looks up at the powered off soltis instead and jumps a bit. 

"Ha! serves you right" Mildly annoyed he finally sits up to find Ai back in his little alien humanoid, Ignis form. 

"Aw, Yusaku is smiling, maybe next time you can be the one to have an existential crisis" AI sentenced turned into a fit of giggles by the end. As long as he's getting some enjoyment out of that experience yusaku won't complain. 

"I'm just glad you're back to normal Ai," he says and the little AI gawks speechless for only about a minute.

"You can't just say things like that, my poor heart can't take it!"


	2. Misadventures in being an A.I.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “OMG! Firewall dragon!”
> 
> “Eh, Playmker, shouldn't you go a little easy on him, you know he's not on our...Okay, that was just overkill, Ai what did you do to make him that angry.” 
> 
> “Hey Ai didn't do anything this is all him.”
> 
> “One of us should probably stop him.”  
> In which Ai needs to lay off the shiny pointy things and Yusaku vents his frustration by almost murdering Brave Max in front of Takeru.

He stared into the new wound carved into the androids hand. Shining silver shadowed by the synthetic skin stretched over a metal and plastic shell soon to fix itself without him having to do anything. It had been a week since he did something similar only to get a different result. As much as his internal systems were telling him that the incision was some kind of threat. It was nothing to the actual feeling of pain and the steady dripping of unfamiliar red liquid. 

Ai means to love people right? The longer he's lived among humans the less he believes that. Waking up as one was a complete nightmare for him, one he thought he'd wake up from if he stuck the shiny silver blade into his hand to get a look at the inhuman shell underneath. It wasn't a lie when he told Yusaku he tried many other methods beforehand but that was his desperate last resort and now here his back at the kitchen table wanting to make sure it hadn't happened again. 

It's been a rough week for him since then but he's tried to keep the extent of his crisis to himself after that sleepy conversation he had with Yusaku. Not that his partner didn't pick up on his discomfort. However, there wasn't a lot either of them could do about it. Ai wanted, no needed to exist in this world with Yusaku and he had to pretend to be human to do so. While most days at least. They do spend as much time as possible at home meaning Ai can be in whatever form he chooses without any unwanted attention. 

He wishes there was a way they could spend more time in the virtual world so he didn't have to run around in an over sized doll. 

Ai should get Yusaku up. It's close to when he usually has to wake up so he probably wouldn't mind it too much. If he's up too then Ai won't spend the next half-hour or so wanting to crave up the table in frustration. Instead, he can use the utensil to make a spectacular breakfast as a nice surprise.

The mundane tasks that made up cooking also made for a good distraction. In no time the mild existential crisis he'd been having all week was momentarily forgotten in favor of trying to avoid making a mess. Ai set a full plate, a small bowl of fruit, and a large mug of caffeine on the tray that remind him briefly of the knife he'd been fiddling with. He swallows the quick feeling of disgust he gets from it. Maybe Yusaku is right about how gaudy his tastes can be. 

Quietly Ai slips into Yusaku's room juggling the tray in his hands. The lump on the bed didn't budge at all from the low clanking of the dishes as he closed the door. Ai can't help smile from the warm content feeling he gets knowing that despite his own issues the major drama in their lives had more less vanished so Yusaku could rest instead of planning revenge or crusading against rouge AI's. 

“Hey sleepy head time to wake up,” he calls softly getting closer to the bed. The blankets stirred some but otherwise nothing happened. “

Come on Ai made you a wonder breakfast” This got a soft grumble from the lump that makes Ai laugh. Giggling he moves the tray so it's balancing in one hand while he uses the other to shake the grumbling lump. 

Then it falls with a few loud clanks as soon as Yusaku rolls over to sleepy glare at Ai. The soft pink light emanating from a diamond shape on the other's neck caused his system to short circuit. He can feel the android step back in shock and horror. 

“Ai!” Yusaku shouts finally awake enough to sit up and see the mess of dishes and food on the floor. Ai can analyze and calculate anything with easy before coming up with a response but this was more than he could handle apparently, he was reeling inside. 

“Ai?” Yusaku asks this time sounding less angry and more concerned. He'd gotten out of bed and slowly made his way over to Ai, careful to avoid stepping in the now useless breakfast. But all Ai could do was try to take a step back only to stumble while his frozen horrified expression probably freaked the other out more. This can't be real, it was just as impossible as Ai waking up with squishy insides. 

Yusaku doesn't say anything as he gets down on the floor with Ai waiting, likely wanting some kind of response out of him for freaking out like this. Without thinking he reaches out for the pink and white diamond now prominently positioned on the others neck. Like a month to an unnatural rose colored flame. 

The action is met with a confused scowl, but he can't even stutter out the words to explain why he's freaking. Instead Ai jumps to his feet pulling Yusaku up with him before dragging him along into the bathroom. 

“Ai what's.” Yusaku cuts himself off as soon as he glances in the mirror. He blinks in disbelief before going back to scowling. “If this is some kind of joke after what happened last week it's not funny!” Yusaku looks over at him like he's going to murder him.

“It wasn't me,” he replies soberly putting his hands up in a defensive manner. 

“You expect me to believe...fuck,” Yusaku says turning away from him to peer back into the mirror. It was a rare thing for the other to curse like that, something incredibly bad must be going through his mind. Ai decides to keep quiet and let him work through whatever that was by himself for now. He steps away to sit on the edge of the tube while Yusaku stands in front of the mirror dazed. 

He watches his partner slip his pajama sleeve down to check for the light that soltis have on their wrists before Yusaku moves the cabinet mirror to get a look light on his back. Ai's pretty sure he was freaking out inside even if the newly made soltis looked fairly collected. 

“What god did we piss off?” Yusaku grumbles, shoulders hunching down in a deflated manner. Ai snickers not expecting that kind of response. Neither of them were religious. With Yusaku's life and Ai's existence, it never made sense for them. 

“I don't know but hopefully this is as temporary as last week was,” he replies. “How's it feel?”

“Like most of my senses are cut off but at the same time something is nagging at them,” Yusaku says looking back over to him.  
“That's probably your connection to the network. Everything else is probably just the soltis sensors,” Ai supplies casually waving off the perplexed look on the others face. Then he points to the door “try grabbing the knob.” The other complies without saying anything. There's a loud crack and a thud before he catches a glimpse of gold by Yusaku's feet. Yeah, he thought that would happen. He's not letting him out of the house today, a badly calibrated android was more dangerous than a clumsy human and was more likely to hurt someone else on accident. Ooh, he got an idea. He'll have to send a certain fiery duelist a message. 

“You were expecting that weren't you,” Yusaku groans pushing the bathroom away so he can escape. He probably thinks he can just go back to bed to wait for the day to be over. Ai snickers again thinking about how this time Yusaku gets to fumble around with being something else.

When Ai finally makes his way to back to the bedroom, he finds Yusaku fumbling around as he tries to clean up the mess Ai made earlier. Quietly he gets down to help cleanup. 

“Yusaku do you mind if we test something out?” he asks collecting the dishes. 

“Depends.” Yusaku replies cautiously. 

“It's nothing bad. I just want to know if you can slip into the network like I can,” he says and Yusaku looks like he's considering it for a couple of minutes. While the new soltis figures that out he reaches into a dresser for a cord before going for the outlet under his hair. It would be better to lead his partner along to avoid him potentially getting lost in the infinite expanse of the network. 

Once Yusaku glances back at him he steps back and gives Ai a funny look. 

“It's nothing that weird I promise, just let me plug this end in...” the more he says the more uncomfortable the other looks. Ever fearless Yusaku eventually grabs the other end of the cord to examine it before he fumbles around trying to plug it in. Ai smiles a bit at the quick jolt that runs through the cord. He closes his eyes focusing on using their shared connection to pull Yusaku into the network with him. 

It didn't take long for them to make their way through the zeros and ones. They landed easily on the cobble stones streets of part of link Vrains. Ai thought about taking a quick trip to cyberse world but coming here was a better idea. 

“Ok now what Ai?” Yusaku dully asks watching the other avatars and AI around them. There's one in particular that seems to make he recoil some. He can probably read the avatars information the same Ai does. The next thing Ai wants to test they should do out of view of so many spectators so he drags the other into an alley away from everyone. 

“While now we see if you can do this!” Ai exclaims shifting into his ignis form with an exaggerated purple cloud. Yusaku gives him an incredulous look like he's crazy and they both know he is. It was only fair that if Ai spent a day being human that Yusaku spent an equal amount of time being an Ignis. 

“Fine,” Yusaku concede. He stands there for awhile not moving until he's not there anymore. Instead, a navy colored Ignis was in his place. They both stare at each other before Ai screeches loudly. It all happened too fast for him to really believe he'd even seen the familiar form in an unfamiliar color. In a flash Yusaku was back to his usually prickly human form. 

“I'm not doing that again.” said with an expression as equally flat as the tone. Ai's starting to empathetic for his partners new predicament. It's not easy essentially switching species and being here might be too much. 

“Hey, Ai I got your message!” So much for sending a different message telling Takeru to stay home. No, instead Soulburner fumbles down into the alleyway having trouble landing in the tight space. 

“Ta...Soulburner what are you doing here?” Yusaku asks still sounding dull.

“Oh, Ai told me you guys were going to be here, so I thought I'd stop by,” Takeru replies pointing to him. Yep he's in trouble if the cold 'im going to murder you' look on Yusaku's face is anything to go by. “Actually I've been meaning to talk to you, Kusanagi told me you two hand 'interesting' experience last week?” Did he really need to add the quotes with his fingers?

“Of course he did,” Yusaku groans. 

“Oh my god, Yusaku you know Soulburner!” Squeals a new a voice in the alley. Bravemax stood at the opening fanboying over the now uncomfortable looking fire duelist. “That's so cool!”

“Oops I didn't think I would draw anyone's attention,” Takeru mumbles. 

“It's fine, in fact,” Yusaku starts before turning into Playmaker, angry intense stare and all.“It's only fair” Ai's not sure what's going on anymore but ever the fool Brave Max appears to be in fanboy heaven with the appearance of two of his heroes. 

“Shima, duel me.” the demand is joined by Playmaker gesturing the idiot to follow him deeper into the alley, anyway from the street. Takeru and Ai share a confused look but just decided to keep any issues to themselves before taking a position behind Yusaku to stay out of the way. 

“Fujiki why didn't you tell me, I can't believe I was friends with the amazing Playmaker the whole time?Wait how do I know you're really him?” Shima rambles on and on about his undying love for his hero. At least he thought about questioning whether Yusaku was really Playmaker, once. It's not the stoic former hero gave him any sort of answer outside preparing to duel. 

“OMG! Firewall dragon!”

“Eh, Playmker shouldn't you go a little easy on him, you know he's not on our...Okay, that was just overkill, Ai what did you do to make him that angry.” 

“Hey Ai didn't do anything this is all him.”

“One of us should probably stop him.”

Shima's on the ground scraped up looking at Firewall like it's actually going to eat him alive with just a couple hundred life points left. They should be happy Yusaku isn't one for the numerous FTK strategies Firewall, can do or this might have been worse. AI doesn't really care all that much for Brave Max, he'd stopped being a presence in their lives after Yusaku graduated and the few times they did come across him he was always uncomfortable with Ai's presence. didn't mean Ai wants to see him get injured because Yusaku isn't aware that he could hurt the idiot if he isn't careful. Ai shifts back to his human form without much thought.

As Playmaker is going to call his last attack Ai walks over to him and places his right hand on Yusaku's shoulder hoping to get his attention. It works Yusaku stops and looks over at him, expression still almost unreadable. If it weren't for their link sense, it would be. 

“That's enough, let's go home,” Ai whispers avoiding using Yusaku's name in case they can get away with convincing Shima's he's not the real one. shouldn't be too hard to play it off as someone using a Soltis to impersonate people with that awful gem on his neck and how gullible the other is. “Just play along” He gives Yusaku a wink before turning to Brave Max.

“Sorry about him, I was testing out an AI I built based on Yusaku and it appears to still have a lot of bugs,” Ai says taking a step between the two with a casual flare of his hands. The hologram of Firewall disappears while Brave Max struggles back onto his feet. 

“Sure,uh...I'm just gonna,” Brave Max's avatar is gone before he finishes his sentence. 

“Yusaku what just happened?” Takeru asks coming up behind them. Ai frowns he just wants to get the other home so they can relax and talk about this without anyone else around. Takeru will forgive him eventually for what he's about to do."Hey!" Ai logs both Yusaku and himself out before making sure they both make it back to their respective androids. Maybe he'll send Takeru a gift card for some place that sells tracksuits as an apology but first he should probably get off the floor and unplug himself. 

The soltis was slow to start moving too or maybe it was him either way by the time he sat up Ai could see that Yusaku wasn't in the room and dishes from earlier were completely cleaned up. 

When he finally got the android moving Ai made his way into the kitchen. They couldn't put off dealing with this, unfortunately. He finds Yusaku slumping over the kitchen table with one hand holding his head up blankly staring out the window. Quietly Ai sits in the chair next to him and grabs Yusaku's other hand. 

“I'm sorry,” Yusaku murmurs not looking at him. 

“No, I'm sorry, it was my idea to go into Link Vrains,” he replies. Ai had a few concerns about doing so but ignored them in favor of seeing if Yusaku has turned into a real ignis and no just some kind of AI like Roboppi was. 

“I supposed I have more of an idea of how you felt last week now,” Yusaku says still not looking at him, but he did grab his hand back. 'oh really?'

“Yeah, I have enough trouble feeling connected to other humans and being something inhuman definitely makes that worse, I can only imagine what it would have been like if we went outside and had to interact other people,” He continues, and Ai scoots his chair closer to Yusaku's. 

“Oh, now you know what it's like to live as a soulless AI huh?” it comes out harsher than he intended. Taken by surprise Yusaku whips his head around and lets go of his hand. 

“If either us of is soulless it's me, for trying to take out my frustration on Shima.” Not the reply he was expecting but he'll take it for now. “What does it matter if either us have souls anyway?" That's more like it. Ai should make a note to send Shima some kind of apology, later.

He's always known Yusaku was sympathetic towards his position as an advanced computer program having to live in world run by beings that thought they were better than him. It made this misadventure seem kind of redundant. But maybe whatever kept making them switch places wanted them to bridge that cap with some more understanding of what it was like. Too bad they've always had a hard time doing what other people want them to. 

Yusaku tugs Ai so that he's leaning into Yusaku's side. “Whatever it is you're thinking about it can't be good.”

“Hey!It's nothing bad I'm just wondering what misadventure us soulless machines can get up,” he replies mischievously. 

“Stop that, Ai, I know when something is bothering you.” 

There isn't much either of us could do about it though.” his reply gets muffled by the fabric of Yusaku's shirt. Besides they should be focusing on him instead. 

“Since when did that ever stop you”Yusaku snorts.

“Since having to deal with idiots on a near daily basis if I want to go outside.” 'Or since I'm trying to avoid a future where you end up killed because people think of me as some kind of soulless thing they can use for themselves instead of another being with actual thoughts and feelings.' 

“You know you said that out loud right?” Oops. This time Yusaku moves Ai so that he's laying on his leg. This would have been uncomfortable if he actually had muscles and joints. 

“At least now I've got a better understanding for why you never seem to stop thinking,” Yusaku comments looking down at him.“also Ai, I already promised you I would help change the future to something better.” This conversation was supposed to be about Yusaku not him but it always comes back to him doesn't it? Oh well he'll bother Yusaku about it tomorrow when hopefully he's not an AI anymore. 

'Ai know' He wonders what the simulations would be like with Yusaku being an ignis. It would mean he wasn't the only one left anymore. Ai doesn't want his partner to be like this if he's unhappy with it. Considering how he lashed out at Shima like that it's clean Yusaku is about as okay with this as he was last week. Yusaku as himself was all Ai really wanted. He can tell they both want to stay like that but Yusaku's phone rings. when the other goes to check it, Ai can see it's Kusanagi calling...Takeru probably called him about how weird Yusaku was acting. 

Are you going to explain to Hot Dog man that this time you're one in the wrong body?” he teases. 

“No, I'll tell him about it tomorrow once my existential crisis is over,” Yusaku relies in a teasing tone. Ai laughs so hard it causes the chairs between them to move apart leading him to fall on the floor still laughing. 

“Ooh, that was great.” They'll figure things out eventually in the meantime he doesn't mind dealing with a few lumps in the road.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah i wasn't intending to write this but the writing prompts for the last few days just kind of worked in its favor; silver, wounded, and soul or in this case soulless lol. 
> 
> It was supposed to be more focused on Yusaku but Ai is easier to write and tends to take over. 
> 
> Poor Shima


	3. Switching bodies is overrated

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Or that's what would have been reasonable. When had the impish creature he lived with ever been reasonable? 
> 
> “Where did you even get the lipstick?” Yusaku exclaims horrified

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Straw man gonna straw man

Somehow waking up in ridiculous frilly purple clothing accompanied by familiar dark hair flared out around him without a certain idiot on the couch next to him didn't shock Yusaku. Hell it barely registered as weird after the last couple times something strange happened to them. What was surprising, was the lack of Ai frantically running into his room shrieking about their new predicament. Maybe the other was still sleeping, considering now he could sleep. 

Despite the lack of bewilderment over his current situation, Yusaku was mildly annoyed by it once he finally got definitive proof in his reflection. 

Seriously what god did they piss off to cause them to keep fucking with them like this? Hopefully this time it won't take as long. Ai only had to spend about a day living like a biological human while Yusaku ended up spending about a week as an AI/android. Given how he reacted the first day, they opted to stay inside until whatever it was finally wore off if it ever did. 

Thankfully it did but it left them wondering if something similar would happen again any time soon. Miraculously or at least ironically it happened a few months after they both started to think whatever god had taken an interest in them had gotten bored. 

The wrinkled purple blouse in the mirror told him otherwise. 

He sighs after playing around with the thin piece of clothing for a bit. Some part of Yusaku considered just staying in the minimum layer of clothing Ai usually wears. Guess it was a good thing he finally got Ai used to toning down the dramatics at night when it wasn't necessary. 

Still he'd be more comfortable in a hoodie and some jeans. It would make this less awkward for him at least. 

While he's getting a change of clothes, he can check on Ai, or himself? Maybe it was a little weird to think of someone else being in his body even if the other person knew him better than anyone. 

Soundlessly Yusaku creeps his way into the bedroom. Only when the door creaks open he sees the bed neatly made and room unoccupied. Ai must have gotten up before him. Knowing that, he retrieves something more comfortable out of the closet.

It wouldn't surprise him to find out Ai was just as tired of this as he was and that was why he hadn't woken him up like he had the first time. 

Or that's what would have been reasonable. When had the impish creature he lived with ever been reasonable? 

“Where did you even get the lipstick?” Yusaku exclaims horrified at the liberties Ai had taken with his body. 

“There's a 24-hour drugstore down the street,” Ai replies leaning on the kitchen table like the otherworldly elvish creature he'd made Yusaku look like.“make up just doesn't work as well on the androids skin.” When had Ai even tried that out?

“You are not leaving this apartment with me looking like that!” Yusaku states firmly, the inky tear track lines of eyeliner Ai drew finally registering. 

“I can, and you can't stop me!” Ai sings with a grin reminiscent of the Cheshire Cat. Yusaku didn't even think his face was able to grin like that, it was sort of nightmarish. 

“Catch me if you can!” 

He's not going to be able to leave the house for a month after this. Yusaku would rather have seen him dressed up in the cape and frills then whatever Ai was going for today, dressed like some sort of Pierrot. Seriously where did he even find half of what he was wearing?

If the sound of their front door opening and closing was anything to go by, he wasn't going to be able to talk Ai out of going out like that. It was how he found himself standing outside the north station surrounded by people who kept staring at Ai like he was some exotic creature. 

Of course there were a few people that been in high school with him giving them weird looks too. Like they though Yusaku had snapped and gone crazy in the years since. 

“Never thought you'd be so concerned with what other people thought,” Ai says low enough that the curious passersby wouldn't hear him. 

“Most people would be somewhat self conscious with so many people watching them,” he replies kind of glad most people overlooked him in his casual hoodie and jeans. 

“As you said, most people,” Ai counters using his head to point towards sugary pastel girl rushing down the other side of the street to catch an incoming bus. 

“Ai, I know you have a bigger point but this isn't how you prove it,” Yusaku says watching the girl disappear behind the large vehicle.

“Do you?” Ai questions. 

Ignoring the bait, he asks,“Why are just standing here?” They've been standing outside the train station for about ten minutes. 

Ai grins, pulling him down into the tunnel instead of answering him. When they resurface about a half an hour later they're close to the more bohemian area of the city. Or as close to something like that as could develop in their area. 

“Come on, I've been wanting to go to a this new AI cafe they build down 5th” Ai calls running off ahead of Yusaku. 

The one good thing about being in the soltis meant he was taller and had an easy time catching up with his now out of shape partner. 

“You need to exercise more,” Ai pants trying to catch his breath after a few blocks.“Give me a second and we can go inside.”  
While Ai's catching his breath Yusaku looks into the store front they were stopped in front of. Androids with very balant markers were roaming around taking orders and serving customers. Some seemed to be giving a particular maid droid a hard time. 

“Fujiki?” questions a voice that should have been on the other side of the world by now. It might have been years since Revolver tried to take down the entire Japanese power grid but he was still a wanted man. 

“Hello,” Ai greets with a sickenly sweet smile observing the new arrival. 

“Hello Kogami,” He greets wondering if the man has already figured out what was going on. 

“I don't want to know do I?” Ryoken asks looking over Ai's batty eyelashes directly to him. 

“No, just try to forget I ever walked out the house like that,” Yusaku says pointly and Ai huffs about how he's no fun. He's not the one making a scene in some else' body. 

“How about you join us for lunch, so you two can catch up,” Ai suggests not really waiting for either of them to answer since he flung the door open expecting them to go through.

Oddly Ryoken took the invitation to go in leaving him without much of choice about whether or not he should follow. Those two together without Yusaku would not end well for anyone. He walks in, and Ai closes the door behind him as the maid droid that was getting hassled earlier ushers them to a table. 

“Fujiki either you've finally snapped, which I'm surprised hasn't happened sooner or you're actually Ai and he's Fujiki,” Ryoken comments gesturing towards him while Ai talks to the waitress. 

“It's the latter, and I no idea what he's up too,” Yusaku sighs leaning onto the table with his elbows. 

“Hey!, I'm not up to anything,” Ai replies turning back to them as the waitress walks away. Apparently he'd ordered for both himself and Ryoken then. 

“There was a rumor floating around Link Vrains awhile back about someone experimenting with an AI modeled after Playmaker,” Ryoken states casually. 

“Knew Brave Max was going to blabber about that,” Ai mutters leaning into his shoulder. Strange as it was when it came to public displays of affection Ai didn't do things like that often, at least not more noticable actions. Ryoken rolled his eyes at the action. 

“Aren't you supposed to be on the other side of the world?” Ai continues unbashianley making a point of grabbing Yusaku's hand on top of the table. 

“I'm just visiting,” Ryoekn replies shrugging.“Aren't you supposed to be a robot?”

Not wanting to deal with the two children next to him making vague jabs at each other, Yusaku looks over to the man who had been giving the maid droid a hard time. Since they sat down the man had been giving him the evil eye. Why would a guy with something against AI come to a cafe run by them?  
Ryoken is an incredibly weird case in that kind of scenario. The former Hanoi leader programmed Pandor after all and she's lovely to be around. Though Yusaku hasn't really gotten to much of a chance to hang out with her. 

Still it's not like the man knew about Pandor and the work she often did to help people but that didn't mean the poor android taking his abuse deserved it for doing it's job. 

“What are you looking at?" accuses the man shoving the poor android away to try to appear threatening. 

“Ooh, looks like you're in trouble,” Ai whispers squeezing his hand tighter, watching the man cautiously. 

“Got something to say punk?” The man yells stepping closer. Yusaku can see Ryoken trying to decide if it would be a good idea to get involved but Ai beats him to the punch. 

“No, we're just waiting for food sorry if we did something to bother you,” Ai apologizes sounding pleasant enough but he knows Ai wants nothing more then to tear into the man. 

“That's what I though, Creeps like you thinking they actually care about you, it's pathetic,” the man raves grabbing his things and preparing to storm out of the cafe without paying for his food. He stops when he catches Ryoken rolling his eyes. 

“You're worse then he is, at least he's' fucked in the head but you,” the man rants pointing out Ai to make a point before continuing “People like you who let weirdos like that get go outside are the worse” 

“It was nice to running into you Fujiki. I'd like to meet up again some time without idiots like him,” Ryoken says getting up. “Now you and I are going to have a long talk outside about your manners.” Taking the man by surprise Ryoken dragged the man outside and out of their sight. A few curses and swears from both as they disappeared down a side street. 

“Wasn't expecting that,” Ai comments staring at where the straw man of an anti-android idiot had been. Sure it was a common for people to be upset about androids taking over but the truth was humans created the androids and used them instead of other humans as cheaper alternatives. 

Why would a man like that even be in this kind of cafe?

“I swear you're doing this on purpose,” he mutters catching Ai's attention. Ai ignores it in favor of hoping into the seat across the table where Ryoken had been. 

“I'm not, you want to go?” He asks sounding concerned,

“No, after all that it would be better if you got your food and then we left,” he replies in time for the maid android to come back with some tea and soup. What got Yusaku's attention were the indents that he could see on its face. Without thinking he'd reach out and the hologram projecting it's face fizzled some. Ai looked over at him sadly. 

“Likely something damaged her projector,” he says reaching out to guide Yusaku's hand back to the table “It probably from idiots like that getting upset because she doesn't work fast enough.”

Yusaku could have sworn the soltis felt some kind of connect to the android and Ai knew that. That was why he'd moved Yusaku's hand away just like he'd done whenever Yusaku had gotten to close to anything more complex than a toaster the last time he'd been an android. 

“How about we take this to go? Maybe we can still catch Mr. Professor.”Ai jokes. 

Their trip back home had been fairly normal aside from his hand getting stuck in the door and Yusaku not realizing it until he was half way down the train. Why did he even need that function? After Stopped chuckling madly, he finally told Yusaku even he wasn't sure why Sol included that feature but it had been super helpful in the past. 

“Are you going to tell me what you were going for today?” he asks once they're off the train heading back to their apartment. 

“I told you, I didn't have adjenda that just kind of happened,' Ai answers defensively. Knowing better than that, he continues to stare at the other waiting for answer. 

“Alright fine!I had somewhat of a plan but clearly that didn't work,” Ai huffs stopping a few feet behind him to cross his arms defensively. 

“I did this get up to try to make you see how people usually react me,” he confesses staring at the ground. “but I wasn't expecting to run into Revolver or that idiot, I just wanted to you see how people like that usually give me weird looks when you're not paying attention, I mean it happened again why not.” His rambling starts to get low enough that even the soltis advanced hearing stopped picking it up. 

“Come let's go home,” He says offering Ai a hand. The rambling idiot nodes his and grabs Yusaku's hand before dragging them both toward their apartment. 

“If you want me to understand you more, why do you keep getting between anything remotely electronic and me?” He asks closing the front door behind him. 

“I'm afraid you'll either short circuit whatever it is or get lost in cyberspace especially when I'm human and can't help you along,” Ai answers truthfully. 

“So let's agree we never leave the house ever again.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From that day forward they never left their apartment ever again...
> 
> Also Ryoken totally snuck a picture of Ai's crazy clown getup as blackmail material.

**Author's Note:**

> My french is rusty so that sentence is probably (utterly) wrong. I put the french into google translate and got let's eat my boyfriend...gotta love google translate lol at least some sites say context is what's important when using copain and ami.
> 
> * cuts out long rant that goes with that quote from the show * it was long and this fic is already long enough. I may or may not come back and play with this idea a bit more we'll see.


End file.
